There has been a LOT of ‘change’ in the Pentagon but not much ‘hope’ under Obama…
From Fox, the following was written by JD Gordon. The whole article is HERE
With the war over in Iraq and winding down in Afghanistan, some downsizing at the Pentagon was to be expected. But it’s much more than that. Take the half-a-trillion in programmed defense cuts over the next 10 years, combine this with another half-a-trillion from Obama’s deal with Congress, when the Supercommittee failed to reach agreement on our national debt, and you will see a hollowed out military like the one we saw during the 1970s.
Even Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, one of most influential Democrats in Washington over the past couple decades, described the Congressional sequestration cuts as, “a gun to their heads and to the heads of the country.” A total of 100,000 ground troops are being eliminated, ship and aircraft numbers are shrinking fast, and new weapons systems are being scrapped or delayed.
With America’s most sensitive secrets in cyber-warfare and counter-terrorism now routinely finding their way into breaking news alerts, even White House ally Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) called the leaks the “worst in a long time.”
From computer attacks on Iran’s nuclear program, to a foiled Al Qaeda plot to take down an airliner with a new and improved underwear bomb worn by a Saudi double agent, to painstaking details on the SEAL team raid that killed Usama Bin Laden, Team Obama has apparently sought to score political points at the expense of protecting the nation’s top covert operations.
3. The Pentagon is now detainee friendly
Though Obama couldn’t close Gitmo, the next best thing to that stated purposed was the decision to spend $750,000 in 2012 on a new soccer field for the detainees.
Meanwhile, within the president’s first 48 hours in office, he chose to ban all coercive interrogations – thereby depriving the military and intelligence community of an important tool in preventing potential mass-casualty terrorist attacks.
Never mind the fact that just a handful of the most dangerous detainees ever underwent any sort of harsh techniques out of the tens of thousands of enemy combatants captured in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the globe — why let reality get in the way of a good political talking point?
And what is the president’s creative solution to avoid the prospect of coercive interrogations for terror suspects still on the loose? Simple, just kill them all via a drone strike. We’ve recently learned that even US citizens overseas have been fair game for the “secret kill list.”
As of early June, there were 154 suicides in the military this year – an astonishing rate of roughly one per day. This staggering figure is on par with the number killed in combat in Afghanistan over the same period. Though some blame multiple deployments, the Pentagon dismisses that idea, noting that almost half of the victims had never been deployed to a combat zone. One message the Pentagon does emphasize is that getting help is a sign of strength, not weakness – while promoting a suicide prevention crisis line of 1-800-273-8255.
In an amazing first, Obama’s Defense Department will conduct a LGBT Pride Month event on Tuesday, June 26 at the Pentagon Auditorium, with a speech from DoD’s top lawyer Jeh Johnson and a panel discussion entitled, “The Value of Open Service and Diversity.”
With last year’s repeal of the Clinton-era “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” policy gays can now serve openly in the military. That’s a major change at the Pentagon and in our military.
Amid all these ‘changes’, there has been NO reduction in the base operational requirements on the services, equipment is in bad shape/failing after 10 years of war, people in combat are now ‘afraid’ to shoot the bad guys, because some lawyer might come back later and charge them with murder, and the military has been forced into socially correct alignments that negatively impact not only unit moral but unit capabilities…
Having served when we were under Carter and remembering what we went through then; I can only say I TRULY appreciate those who continue to volunteer to serve today…
So what do we do? You know my mantra is “Vote ‘NO’ on any incumbent” Not enough of that to matter, apparently.
As in the seventies, the men (and , now, women) are just as good as they ever were. It’s the civilian side that’s screwing the pooch.
And, as in the ’70s and ’80s, our military is being used for political missions for which they are neither trained nor equipped.
They will persevere. The question is, will this country?
When I was in school, we used to wonder why nothing resembling the USA is mentioned in the Book of Revelation. Now we know it’s because there’s no longer anything resembling the USA which we remember.
Don- Concur with the re-elect NONE, and yeah, they’re hangin in there… Us? I’m not so sure…
Rev- Point!
Yes, a return to the Carter years is what it is.
In response:
1. The better to overextend ourselves into Syria, Egypt, Libya or any other stupid place Mr Obama wishes us to Social Engineer with no clear cut ROEs or business.
2. Because Mr Obama doesn’t much care; he’s more interested in revealing detailed security information on OBL’s capture himSELF.
3. You can’t judge a terrorist by its cover; they COULD be “friendly,” after all.
4. Because they keep getting deployed to the ME, they know they have no mission, massively restrictive ROEs, their friends are killed, they watch others prosecuted for firing on what they thought were actual enemies, etc. And they know, in their gut, that Obama dislikes the military intensely.
5. The military is just the civilian regime now, in terms of the Scale of Gay:
a) First Tolerance
b) Then Acceptance
c) Then ADVOCACY
If you don’t ADVOCATE for LGBTQ, then YOU are homophobic.
Same for soldiers now.
BZ
Gad, in response to this horrible information, no wonder military suicides are at an all-time high.
Yes, I remember Carter, followed by Reagan!
Another ‘salute’ to those who still serve (well most of them anyway). I served under Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush 1, Clinton (Carter replay), Bush 2 and unfortunately this latest (alleged) CIC (makes Carter look like an expert). The shambles that were made of the military and particular the supporting infrastructure take inordinate amounts of time, money and effort to repair – you that have served know what I’m talking about but the others only look at the ‘peace dividends’ that they can use to push thru more of their social agendas.
BTW – did panetta ever spend any time in uniform???
Andy- Yep…
BZ- Good (bad) combacks… sigh
Z- Concur
Earl- Yep, worst to first! 🙂
Anon- Agreed, and yes Panetta served 2 years as Army Intel.
“There is nothing more dangerous than a pissed off G.I.”, I was told by a former Wehrmacht Feldwebel who managed our Rod and Gun Club in Germany circa 1965. He spoke from direct experience.
My medic son goes absolute lock jaw when asked about the attitude of the troops. One senses a seething frustration.
Wonder just how much Obama can push before there is a coup. We must make him a one term president.
Maybe I’m being too dramatic.